Huldbrand’s Second Marriage to Bertalda

Sir Huldbrand of Ringstetten’s second marriage to Bertalda is a wedding shadowed from the outset by uncertainty about Undine, his first wife, and by a supernatural law that makes remarriage fatal. The ceremony goes forward despite warnings from Father Heilmann and the fisherman; its gloomy feast gives way to the reopening of a sealed fountain, Undine’s return, and Sir Huldbrand’s death. The marriage thus turns an attempted new beginning into the final consequence of a bond the participants cannot safely treat as ended.

Background and the Unresolved First Marriage

The possibility of a second marriage emerges after Undine disappears and Sir Huldbrand and Bertalda live for a long while at Ringstetten Castle, grieving her and almost wholly forgetting their former attachment to one another. Undine’s absence does not establish her death. Father Heilmann has previously seen her in dreams, and the fisherman, who regards Undine as deeply dear to him, remains troubled that no one knows for certain whether she is dead. He objects that Bertalda would in effect take the place of the woman who had been supplanted, and that Bertalda bears some responsibility for Undine’s loss—even if Undine’s body lies in the Danube or has been carried away to the ocean.

The emotional and supernatural stakes are rooted in the first marriage. Undine had explained that water spirits could gain souls through a close union of affection with a human being, and that she had acquired one through her love for Sir Huldbrand. That change made her capable of human grief, while also exposing her to the consequences of her husband’s possible rejection. Her kin, meanwhile, remain governed by the laws of their element. The new marriage is therefore not simply a domestic arrangement after bereavement: it risks violating a bond whose spiritual and supernatural conditions are still in force.

The Decision and Father Heilmann’s Warning

The fisherman’s insistence that Bertalda return to him makes the danger of separation newly immediate. The prospect of being left alone in the castle awakens Sir Huldbrand’s dormant affection for her. Bertalda, now gentler and more submissive, pleads for the match and weeps for Undine; her appeals, together with the fisherman’s regard for the knight, eventually overcome his objections. The fisherman remains at the castle without further opposition, and a messenger is sent to Father Heilmann, who had joined Sir Huldbrand and Undine in marriage.

Father Heilmann hurries to the castle, fearing that he may still prevent the intended wedding. In private, he tells Sir Huldbrand, Bertalda, and the fisherman that Undine has appeared in his dreams for a fortnight, wringing her hands and pleading that she is still alive and that Sir Huldbrand’s life and soul be saved. He admits that he cannot explain her mysterious condition, but insists that she was a pious and faithful wife and that Sir Huldbrand cannot be certain she is dead. He also points to the knight’s continuing grief, visible in his pale face, as evidence that the first marriage has not truly been left behind.

The warning is understood inwardly but rejected in practice. All three listeners resist Father Heilmann, swept along by the decision they have already made. He leaves with a sad heart, declining both the offered lodging and refreshments. Sir Huldbrand persuades himself that the priest is given to fancies and summons a different priest from a nearby monastery, who agrees to perform the ceremony. The second marriage is thus enabled not by resolving the question of Undine’s fate, but by choosing to proceed despite it.

The Wedding Feast

The wedding feast at Ringstetten Castle is presented as splendid in appearance and joyless in feeling. The narrator distinguishes its gloom from a disturbance by ghosts: the castle has been secured against the mischief of the threatening Water spirits. Nevertheless, the knight, the fisherman, and the guests feel that the feast lacks its chief person, whom they can only imagine to be Undine. Each opening door draws their eyes; when it brings only a servant carrying dishes or wine, the guests’ hopes fall away and their wit and merriment are extinguished by renewed remembrance.

Bertalda seems the least troubled, and so the happiest, but even she finds her place at the head of the table strange. She wears a green wreath and gold-embroidered clothes while imagining Undine as a corpse at the bottom of the Danube or as someone carried by the current into the ocean. The fisherman’s earlier doubts continue to sound in her mind. The guests disperse early, not because Sir Huldbrand ends the celebration, but because their own forebodings and sorrow drain it of life; the occasion has no cheerful procession of bridesmaids and bridegrooms.

Afterward, Bertalda tries to turn her attention to the pleasures of the wedding. She has a splendid jewel ornament, rich garments, and veils laid out so she can choose what to wear the next morning. When she notices freckles at the side of her neck, her attendants try to reassure her by calling them beauty spots, but she insists that any spot is a defect. This concern soon draws her back to the fountain: believing Undine will not have the stone removed that evening, Bertalda is pleased to see workmen arrive with levers and other tools. She orders the obstruction lifted, taking satisfaction in the power her wishes now have to bring about what had previously been refused.

The Fountain Opens and the Marriage Ends

The workmen find the enormous stone easier to lift than expected. It rises almost without their effort, as if the water itself were pushing from beneath it; when the stone rolls onto the pavement, a column of water rises from the opening. What appears at first to be a newly springing fountain resolves into a pale female figure veiled in white. Weeping, wringing her hands, and raising them in anguish, the figure walks toward the castle. Servants flee, while Bertalda and her attendants stand horrified at the window. Bertalda thinks she recognizes Undine beneath the veil as the figure passes below her room.

The apparition proceeds through the familiar halls to Sir Huldbrand’s chamber. He is alone, partly undressed, standing before a mirror in the dim light of a taper. The gentle tap at the door recalls Undine’s former playful visits, but he tries to dismiss the sound and prepare himself for the bridal bed. Undine enters and tells him that the spring has been opened and that he must die. He senses that her words cannot be escaped, yet asks not to see her face if it is hideous. She answers that she is still as fair as when he wooed her on the promontory. The opened fountain has brought the first wife into the castle on the very night of the second marriage, collapsing the distance the attempted remarriage depended upon.

The marriage’s aftermath confirms the force of the warning. Sir Huldbrand dies, and Bertalda becomes a widow. At the funeral, Father Heilmann carries a crucifix before the procession, while Bertalda follows supported by her aged father. A snow-white, veiled figure appears among the mourners, wringing her hands; attempts to remove her fail as she seems to vanish and then reappear. She follows Bertalda to the grave, where her presence recalls Undine’s earlier kindness to Bertalda on the Danube. When the burial is complete, the stranger has disappeared. The second marriage has therefore produced no stable replacement for the first: its feast, its opened fountain, and its funeral form a continuous sequence in which Undine’s unresolved bond remains decisive.